Transforming cities with technology | The Economist

by 2050 two-thirds of the world's population will live in cities [Music] urbanization that is happening faster than at any time in human history [Music] I think that the problem in cities as they grow is only going to become worse globally 900 million people are living in slums cities can't add housing fast enough today an estimated 1 billion vehicles are already bringing urban areas to a standstill cities consumed three-quarters of the world's energy each year and are responsible for around 50% of greenhouse gas emissions these are challenges our cities have been facing for decades but now some city leaders businesses and even citizens are taking new approaches to tackling these old problems this is where technology and imagination meet together and we create new cities they're transforming their cities with technology so South Korea one of the most connected digitized cities in the world home to 10 million people this city has a population density twice that of New York in Seoul the use of data is seen as the key to tackling some of the big challenges of city life like moving its people around city workers here use sophisticated technology to understand that and transform how the city and its Metro can be run mr. Kim is the manager of City Hall station [Music] don't water I wondered a lot of them you know your world of awesome Sun tears are she'd get oh sure you can know to catch other than a person focus on that to answer the subway system transport seven million people every day it's widely regarded as one of the best in the world and the entire network from wheels to workers relies on continually updating information which is immoral as a scientist in the brilliant Sun kagura-san Thomas generators are more in on your honor two days of traveling on other events or higher at emergency in got our harshest Anika the speed and frequency of the trains can be constantly adjusted to keep everything running smoothly smart cameras measure how many passengers are boarding and how quickly and sensors on the trains and tracks monitor every last component to provide early warnings when maintenance is required and prevent costly breakdown and all of the data ends up in the hands of this man an MK o Guinness horse jockey vida sana young young get to Magana we are your goon mr. Gardiner's whole Tony Turkish Hamza da toughest is the city's transport operation and information service and this is where mr. Yang and his controllers get to grips with all the data not just from the subway but from the city's buses taxis and roads [Music] Chronicle units are booster at home smarter k ke Baras Freedman resourcing up we are winner church and the night is young below young s all also she wouldn't or Park awake we're here in tapas their goal is to use the data to anticipate problems and stop congestion building up in the first guru is a bomb and de l'avenir boo boo boo no Tiger pad in the room kept total Authority mm what is he bought with feedback so they use smartphone apps social media and the web to give citizens real-time alerts and alternative routes and keep this mega city running smoothly transport is just the start seoul city planners are using data to better understand more of the big challenges this fast-growing city faces from air pollution to affordable housing high above the control room there's one man who keeps tabs on the entire city his name is Park won-soon systems twist ha cleaner Switzer he's a former human rights activist a political outsider human wander in patrol total Authority system has its privileges and for the last 7 years he's been the mayor of Seoul for millennia communities have been overseen by powerful leaders like mr. Park but he wants to turn this on his head handing responsibility to Seoul's ten million citizens some deserving jeremy smith our social I wish part of your question the mayor's office can plug into real-time data on just about anything and so from police call-outs to Street protests to pollution levels from his office the mayor can even tell you the real time price of Apple's he's a bit more coy about the data the city holds on individual citizens but the mayor is clear in his desire to share much of the information he has his fingertips [Music] Pazuzu let's go on cammy gazanian on toaster chemistry winning they are cuckoo cuckoo yawn yawn yawn yawn IRA Schmendrick loser tree hugger to you mercy Toro Kaguya so Chauhan [Music] this treasure trove of data is spawning an industry all of its own there are an estimated 30,000 startups in South Korea many of which are offering innovative solutions to challenges like the city's housing shortages [Music] until this movie one company uses this open-source data to pair up young people looking for accommodation with older citizens who have rooms to spare it's a tiny offshoot of an industry that is growing rapidly in cities across the world by 2020 this so-called smart city industry will be worth an estimated 1.5 trillion dollars there'll be investment in everything from networks and sensors to new apps and services from the world's biggest technology firms to innovative new startups working from someone's front room this is the headquarters of flair a startup based in Kenya it's young entrepreneurs are working with real time data sourced from that most ubiquitous of modern innovations smartphone [Music] Kenya's capital Nairobi is emerging as a vibrant tech hub it is also one of the fastest-growing cities in the world home to 4.2 million people it's more than doubled its population in the last 20 years as in many cities in developing countries the aging inadequate infrastructure is struggling to cope kaitland all cart is one of a new generation of business leaders trying to fill some of the gaps the problem in cities as they grow is only going to become worse when you don't actually have the systems in place to actually coordinate and figure out how to do that and like I think that the emergencies are the best example of that because literally every second and minute counts it's 10:00 a.m. in central Nairobi paramedic Nick Makua has been dispatched to an emergency call but for many in trouble in the city and ambulance isn't always the answer but if you use the Madrid we'll give you the problem isn't a shortage of ambulances Nairobi has 150 of them double the number needed in an average city but the city has no centralized emergency service to coordinate them residents here are faced with 50 different numbers to call for help and no guarantee when or whether their ambulance will arrive Nairobi is doesn't lack resources there's plenty of ambulances and there's plenty of hospitals what there isn't is information - how do you get access to that starting with tools that we have today but from that we're building a system that no one's ever had before so you can think about it like uber in the sense that you touch a button and you know the rest is figured out for you you just know that the vehicle is coming your way the app aims to do the job of a centralized emergency service compiling real-time data to coordinate and connect patients in need available ambulances and the right hospitals or healthcare providers Nick and his colleagues reach the patient 12 minutes after receiving the call pretty fast for Nairobi where an ambulance can take up to two hours to arrive next team soon discovers the reason for the call a gangrenous toe excruciating ly painful but not life-threatening had this man suffered a stroke or heart attack this smartphone based system could have helped save his life across the developing world innovators are increasingly exploiting existing technology to help citizens cope with their city's overstretched infrastructure in America innovators are also looking ahead to the next wave anticipating data driven technologies that could help predict problems before they even happen Boston Massachusetts is the 10th largest metropolitan area in America it's home to 4.8 million residents and while Boston may be one of the oldest urban settlements in this country it's fast developing world leading technology that could help shape the cities of the future this is the mission of MIT sensible city lab to anticipate the impact of technology on urban life and use it to transform the way cities are run here at mighty we are not in the urban solutions business we are in the urban imagination business and this is where technology and imagination meet together and we create new cities lead researcher Fabio Duarte believes that data-driven technology will change our whole approach to urban planning when I start collecting data from nature from infrastructure from people and putting this data together then we can see new things about the city that we're not able to see it's a mission that takes Fabio's team to some unlikely parts of the city as I assume that there is thorough search there is collecting data from a sewer isn't a challenge these researchers relish so they've brought along a friend meet Luigi this is Luigi as a whole entire robot this is the brain of Luigi telling it how to function Luigi is a probe built with a big job in mind we're able to use store samples and their urine samples in a sewage to understand people's health patterns and health behaviors more at the source this is no crapshoot the samples Luigi is collecting could help reveal new ways to manage a public health crisis from prescription painkillers to heroin America is in the grip of an opioid crisis across the country nearly two and a half million people are hooked on opioids nationwide these drugs are responsible for more deaths every day than gun crime or road traffic accidents in Massachusetts between 2014 and 2016 opioid deaths rose by an estimated 50 percent data alone won't stop this opioid epidemic but data could start to provide city authorities with the tools to build better public health plans that's what the researchers at MIT are hoping in the lab they're learning how to get data from Puu we have the sample that we extracted from the sewage and what we're gonna do is we're gonna take it and what we want to extract from it is to separate out the microbes from it the bacteria and the viruses and the DNA so that we can process it for DNA data and we also want to extract the chemicals from it so that we have data on chemical excreted from humans using these techniques the researchers can learn when and where there's been a surge in opioid use or bad batches of heroin but they could also be deployed to take control of a host of fast-moving health crises the question is now what are you looking for in that information from this sewage that will allow us to see information on for example if we have viruses that are kind of becoming more prevalent with regards to an epidemic or maybe not even an epidemic just basically an outbreak let's say like influenza in an area as researchers of MIT continued efforts to shape the city of the future they're constantly looking for new ways to reveal more about the city of today that's where we change cities when we put different data from different sources together which is why the team has started talking rubbish [Music] Boston's garbage trucks travel the same streets every week making them the perfect vehicles for the collection of constantly changing environmental data this one's been equipped with temperature sensors humidity sensors and thermal imaging cameras the key check on the energy efficiency of Boston's buildings and the quality of the city air although we do with technology and we create technology here at a daily basis we know that people are at the core of the cities at the core Society so it's only by making people these matters but also sensitive that we can create better series whether it's city planners using data to transform life from on high or citizens using data to build solutions from the ground up they're finding new ways to use technology to tackle the challenges faced by modern-day mega cities they the fallacy and making sense of this data that we can change the cities of the future [Music] you

Channel: The Economist

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Keywords: The Economist, Economist, Economist Films, Economist Videos, Politics, News, short-documentary, transforming cities with technology, smart cities, smart city, megacities, digitised cities, City, smart cities documentary, megacities documentary, urbanisation, technology, data, innovation, metropolis, people, over population, cities, Disruptors, Disrupters, digital cities, what is a smart city, what is a mega city, what is a megacity, megacity

Id: hRY-ZUlJXY0

Length: 18min 58sec (1138 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 31 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/future_bound]

Very interesting video. As a current planner I feel poorly educated in the next wave of planning through informatics. It seems like the role of constant, up to date information will only increase in how we make decisions.